Chasing My Dreams in the Grand Tetons

I looked up, saw the hotel we stayed in the night before and realized we drove two hours in the wrong direction…. but before I tell you about that let me just say that the Grand Tetons have been calling me…. no really they have. I’ve been wanting to go for a while and last week Jamie and I finally made the 9 hour drive and it was glorious!

The first night we drove up to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. If you don’t know about that park it sits on the border of Utah and Wyoming and it’s beautiful. I’m going to assume not many people know of it because we drove around for hours and never saw a single soul. The water was beautiful and the sunset was magnificent. It seemed like it lasted for days and I loved every minute of it.

We spent the night in a hotel near the Flaming Gorge and the next day we were going to finish our drive to Jackson Hole. About 45 minutes into our drive we saw a sign that said “Wild Horse Loop” um wild horses, yes, please! Besides what’s a road trip without a detour?

I love seeing wild horses, and the thought of photographing some made me so excited. We decided we’d follow the loop and then finish our drive to Jackson. We thought it would take us an hour or so and then we be back on the highway after having seen wild horses running through beautiful Wyoming country. Ha!

We drove for about 50 minutes before we saw any horses. They were beautiful and I was really excited to see them. But they were pretty far off and it was mid day so they were pretty much just resting and trying to keep cool. I took a few photos and we just sat and watched them for a bit. Then decided it was time to move on. We drove a few more minutes until we saw “civilization” we realized we weren’t really driving a loop it was brining us to another highway. We continued to drive towards the highway and we’re reading the signs trying to figure out where we are when I noticed the hotel we stayed in the night before. You’ve got to be kidding me! The loop brought us back to our hotel. The wild horses we drove two hours to see were five minutes from our hotel. Oh those detours!

The next stop was Grand Teton National Park. It was amazing. I had actually been there before but it had been a while. We jumped into Jenny Lake, hiked around, and took photos. The park is just gorgeous and every thing I hoped it would be, except for the lack of dogs!

All I kept thinking was I really wish I had a dog to photograph here. Of course later that night I had a dog photography session with an incredibly sweet and friendly yellow lab named Brandy.

Brandy and her mama took us to their favorite secret swimming hole. Nope, don’t ask me where it’s at. I promised I’d never tell. We had an amazing time jumping and playing in the water. I took out my new underwater housing and tested it out on Brandy. She was so eager to jump in and swim around. I had her mom throw her ball towards me. She was so cautious because she didn’t want to hit me with the ball but I really wanted Brandy swimming right at me so I kept telling her to try to hit me in the head with the ball. Lol. She never did, I had to call my husband over, I thought maybe he’d love to hit me with a ball after spending the last few days in the car with me and hearing me sing for hours on end. But I had to beg him to hit me with the ball too. Oh the sweet things my husband does for me if I ask him.

Here are a few photos of Brandy the very friendly yellow lab chasing after her ball in the water. Oh I love it!

Brandy swimming after her ballBrandy swimming in her very favorite spot

We had such a great time in Jackson Hole I’m already planning another trip there in the fall. In the meantime I have pet photography sessions in Denver and around Colorado and plan on taking lots of underwater photos of dogs. I’m so excited for this summer!

If you’re interested in an underwater session with your dog anywhere in Colorado contact me to get more info.